The Promise Diet™ -- a Radical Approach to Permanent Weight Loss

October 19, 2005

Eat Right, Get Fit

Proper nutrition and fitness are essential for vibrant health, whether or not you are following the Promise Diet™.

But if you are, they are vital for your success, as any promise you make needs to be rooted in PUBIMO's U and I -- your promises must be informed and they must be uncontested.

Other posts on this website are going to detail many specifics, discuss the medical/scientific rationale for these guidelines, and introduce (interesting!) areas of current controversy/divergence, but here's a quick "short list" of dietary and exercise principles. If you're not currently doing these things, doing them will likely be beneficial to your health and wellness. (But always consult your doctor before making any changes in your diet or exercise, particularly if you have existing medical condiitions or are taking prescription medications.)

Eat Right

These are listed in no particular order. (And those familiar with it will see Walter Willett's Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy influence on me, in particular regarding the need for good fats.)

Eat "good fats" such as olive oil and canola oil and the fat in wild salmon. Good fats are good for you

Avoid partionally hydrogenated oils found in margerine and many processed snack foods and pastries

Reduce the amount of sugar in your diet. (And "sugar" comes in many different forms)

Don't make deep-fried meats, potatoes, etc. a staple. (And if you're from the southern U.S., realize that "etc." includes many, many things you may currently enjoy :)

I like the way some people summarize a fair amount of this: Eat things that spoil, and eat them before they spoil.

Get Fit

(Or stay fit, as the case may be...)

Partake in regular cardiovascular activity -- get moving and get your heart pumping, daily or just about daily

Do resistance training, a.k.a. weight training, working each major muscle group two or three times a week

Do stretching in order to increase flexibility several times a week

Again, additional posts will go into much greater detail on all of these and will also discuss the "whys" along with the "whats". (Broccoli literally started tasting a lot better when I realized how good it was for my body.)

October 29, 2005

Weight lifting for long-term weight loss

Weight lifting contributes to long-term weight loss by increasing muscle mass, which increases your metabolism, meaning your body continually burns up more calories whether you are at work or at play or asleep.

These muscle gains aren't immediate, but over time the results compound. Lifting weights -- also know as "resistance training" or "weight training" -- can add a pound or two of muscle to your body each month. Each additional pound of muscle burns about 40 calories a day. So if you can add even four pounds of muscle to your body, those 160 calories/day add up to 58,000 over a year, which translates into a loss of over 16.5 pounds in a year, eveything else being equal. (Losing a pound of weight of requires requires 3,500 calories to be burned.) But everything else is not equal, because you're also expending energy while building and maintaining that muscle.

Note that this projected loss occurs without reducing the calories you eat. (Not that you shouldn't do that...)

Don't take my metaphor too literally, but in terms of weight loss, cardiovascular exercice is sorta like working for hourly wages -- you do the work, you get a paycheck. (Or you spend 30 minutes on the treadmill and burn 300 calories.) Weight lifting, then, is sorta like working to build an asset that is going to generate an ongoing stream of income. (I'm speaking in terms of Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad for example.) The initial payoff is less but the long-term residuals are greater. "Make money while you sleep" goes the claim. Well, with weight lifting you literally lose weight while you sleep. Just realize this loss is gradual and long-term.

Just to make sure I'm being clear, cardiovascular exercise provides several long-term benefits to your health, in particular cardiovascular health. Its weight loss benefit is a tad secondary. Let me say it more strongly: cardiovascular exercise is vital for vibrant health and for many is necessary for effective weight loss. That said, weight lifting can add a lot too, just in different ways.

Starting a weight-lifting program

In college I had several roomates and friends who lifted weights, but this idea was very foreign to me then. I started last year at age 36 initially knowing nothing. Pretty quickly I realized that the concepts were not difficult to understand and that weight lifting itself was more enjoyable than I would have guessed -- perhaps in part because of the weight less I was undergoing at the time. :)

Weight Training for Dummies by Liz Neporent and Suzanne Schlosberg (Wiley Publishing, 2000) -- the link to it on Amazon.com is above -- is a great book with lots of illustrations.

The key to a successful weight-training program is to work out each major muscle group of your body (see below) two or three times a week on alternating (non-consecutive) days. One set of 10 repetitions for each muscle group is great to start with; you may never need much more than that if your focus is on overall health and weight loss. (A "repetition" is one up and down. A set of 10 repetitions is going up-down up-down up-down-up-down up-down-up-down-up-down up-down up-down up-down.)

Choose an amount of weight that allows you to barely do 10 repetitions but is too much to do 11. That is, work out your muscles "too fatigue". (You'll of course have to experiment some to find the right weights for you, and it's of course OK if sometimes you can only do 8 reps or make it to 12.) Rest at least a minute between each set. Over time, as you get stronger, increase your weight, so that 10 or so reps continually tends to bring you to muscle fatigue.

You can lift weights at home by buying a set of dumbells or some other equipment, but I have found my local YMCA to be a great place to do this. (My family and I loveour local YMCA!) The YMCA has all the equipment you'll need plus trainers who can show you how to safely use everything.

If you are morbidly obese, this website could save your life. I've not completed my journey, but I've lost over 115 pounds so far, most of it since starting something I'm calling "The Promise Diet." You can too, one promise at a time."

Any significant lifestyle changes you are thinking about making should be discussed with your doctor.The Promise Diet™ and PUBIMO™ are trademarks of Reid Wilson.
Copyright 2005-2006 Reid Wilson. All rights reserved.
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